


Kadu'av: Downfall

by Mistresskabooms, YourHostDatBoiTony



Series: Kadu'av [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Holocaust Imagery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2019-11-21 14:05:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18143183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistresskabooms/pseuds/Mistresskabooms, https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourHostDatBoiTony/pseuds/YourHostDatBoiTony
Summary: With the crippling of the GCAS Fatherland, things are looking up for our heroes. But looks aren't everything. Nothing could prepare them for what comes next





	1. Cutting Losses

In the grasslands of Talian, underneath the pale moon sky, lay a large, sprawling encampment. As much as one would expect it to be quiet, given the time of night, it was actually quite the opposite. Some Men were gathered around the campfire, exchanging stories over dinner, and in some cases, over a beer. Others were keeping watch against would-be intruders, using crude watchtowers to get some form of elevation. Others still were sparring with each other, trying to ensure that they will be ready for whatever came their way. The mechanical whirring of a large airship stirred all from their distractions. Disconcerted murmurs arose from the encampment when the ship itself came into view, smoke billowing from place where smoke ought not to billow. The airship began it's slow descent as an older woman exited from the large tent in the center of the encampment. This woman was Mariah Meseah. She stepped towards the Airship as it finally landed just outside the walls. Though her face was stony and full of resolve, it was quite easy to gather that she was not happy. An older man limped out of the airship to greet her.

"Joseph, my dear, would you care to explain the state of our airship?" she said in a steely calm voice that did well to mask her seething rage.

"Those... Upstarts proved to be smarter than I thought." Joseph said, spitting out 'upstart' with contempt and spite. "They destroyed the gunpowder rooms, so we couldn't shoot them out of the sky."

Maria sighed. "This is incredibly disappointing, my love." Her voice much softer than before.

Somehow, that hurt Joseph much more than being scolded. "I know, love. But... I-I can keep up the pursuit!" He stammered out, trying to step forward before yelping in pain.

"No. At this point, we need to cut our losses. You are too badly hurt to continue. We'll have our Engineers repair the airship. For now, get to the infirmary, and get some rest"

He looked down, disappointed. "Yes, my dear."

Maria gently placed a hand on his cheek. "I love you."

He looked back up at her before placing his hand over hers. "I love you too."

Maria pulled her hand back. "Now, get to the infirmary. We move out in a week."

Joseph nodded as he hobbled over to the infirmary


	2. The House

A few days afterwards, in the forests about 100 miles out from Cathos, a blizzard raged throughout with the intensity of a small hurricane. Gunari lead the expedition further and further into the woods. Vashti was grounded due to the harsh weather, and so, with his massive size, kept knocking down trees by accident.

Eden groaned, rubbing her arms for warmth. "How much further do we need to go!?" Every breath felt like it was coating the inside of her mouth with a thin layer of ice.

"We just need to find some shelter! Those tents aren't gonna do anything!" came Gunari's Voice. It was almost impossible to see her through the blizzard.

"That's just it! How are we supposed to find shelter if I can barely see you!?" Rachel shouted out, her frustration rising.

"I'd rather take my chances with the blizzard than get buried alive by the sn-wait... I see something!"

"What is it!?" Tasaria called out.

"It's a cabin! Maybe we can find shelter in there!"

As Eden looked up, she too saw the cabin. In fact, the snow seemed much less intense around the Cabin than anywhere else she looked. "Finally!" Gunari and Eden Ran to the cabin, with everyone else following suit. Vashti curled up outside the cabin. Gunari looked at him. "You gonna be ok, Vashti?"

"Yeah. I can keep myself warm." He replied curtly.

Eden knocked on the door. No answer. "Hello!? Anybody home?" Also no response. "Nobody's home."

Rachel sighed. "Let's just go inside."

"But wouldn't that be breaking and entering?"

"If nobody's home now, It's more than likely no one lives here. There aren't many reasons anyone would go out in a storm this severe" Rachel said.

"Fair enough, I guess." Eden turns the doorknob. "It's unlocked." She pushes the door open and walks inside, with the rest of the group following close behind. Eden's eyes widen at what she sees: an endless expanse of stars, shining softly upon her. In fact, there was no floor there at all, nor was there and end in sight. The door closes behind her. "Guys, do you see this?" She gets no response. "Guys?" She turns around, only to see that not only was the door gone, but so were her friends. Her heartbeat began to pick up as she rushed in panic toward where the door once was. Strangely enough, despite the lack of the floor, she could still walk completely fine. No matter how much she tried to grasp at some invisible doorknob, she found nothing. "LET ME OUT!" She screamed out into the endless void, only to hear her own voice echoing back to her. That's when she heard it. A chuckle. A chuckle with a very familiar voice. She turned towards the source of it, and her eyes widened at what she saw. It was herself. Or, rather, the man she wasn't, standing across from her. His eyes were deadened and hollow, bearing no life in them, and his posture in a permanent slump. His expression was completely empty, devoid of any emotion or life. His arms hung limply from his shoulders. Suddenly, his body straightened up with a series of sickening cracks. His expression changed to a sickening grin as his eyes regained their vibrancy and color. He smiled at her as he craned his neck, popping his joints like they were long unused. He stretched himself out fully before going into stance. "Hello there." He said with a dissonant serenity in his voice. "It's been too long since the last time we talked. We have so much catching up to do~"


	3. Doubt

Eden stared wide eyed at the being before her. "Who are you? What do you want? Where are my friends!?"

The figure's smile turned into a disappointed frown. "Has it truly been so long that you've forgotten?" His voice was hurt, wounded. "I am simply your voice of reason." He took a step forward. Eden flinched, taking a step backwards, earning her a light chuckle from the figure. "Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you. I simply want to speak with you."

Eden's stance lowered. "Then speak."

The creature smiled its wicked smile. "Tell me, do you really think all you needed in life was a little sex change spell?" The insignia on her shoulder began to burn like a branding iron on flesh. She clutched her shoulder and screamed out in pain, her knees nearly buckling from the shock "why would you brand yourself!?" The figure bellowed in rage, backhanding her. "WHY WOULDN'T YOU JUST LISTEN TO ME!?" He punches her square in the jaw. Eden growled and got back up, going for a high kick. The figure ducked underneath it. Eden went for a flurry of jabs followed by a spinning high kick and then an axe kick, but all to no avail. The figure then swept her legs out from under her. His face was riddled with disappointment.

"Why must you fight me? I only want what's best for you." He said with the same condescending tone as a manipulative parent before kicking her in the stomach. "So stop it with these delusions of grandeur. Of femininity. And stick to the body God gave you." He extended his hand to her in a silent gesture of forgiveness.

She looks down at herself. Was this body truly what she wanted? Was she really a girl? Or was she just a boy, too stupid to know that he had everything he wanted? She absentmindedly drifted her hand ever so closer. Then she paused. She remembered something. The joy she felt when she first cast that spell on herself. The sheer ecstasy that came with that first look at herself in the mirror. She remembered why she was so ecstatic. That was the first time she looked like how she felt. This was the right choice. She pulled her hand away, the burning of her insignia fading to a dull, throbbing pain and then into nothing. She stood up taller than she ever stood before.

The figure glared at her in fury. "Have it your way, then." He tried to punch her, but his fist phased right through her body. He growled before going for a roundhouse kick. Once again, it phased right through her.

She glared at him. "I'm a lot of things. I'm a brawler, I'm a lover, I have more energy than a wound up puppy. But the one thing I'm not, The one thing I'll never be, is you."

The figure growled and charged at her, but, as he charged at her, he dissipated completely. In a whirl of light and color, she found herself inside the cabin again, the storm still raging on around them. Gunari was still there, but the others were gone.

"Well. I see you must have passed whatever test this place had in store for you, well done! Let's hope the others finish soon."


	4. Trust

As Tasaria entered the Cabin, she saw not a cozy little cottage, nor did she find a derelict shack. What she instead found was... A courtyard? It was sunny, and even warm, contrasting the raging blizzard outside. Standing before her was a crowd of people. The crowd was fairly diverse, consisting of Yeshu, Roja, Alayim, and countless others. "What the? Am I... I don't..." each of her sentence fragments drifted off into the void as she found herself unable to voice her confusion. The crowd was unmoving, almost like statues. She stepped closer to the crowd. As she stepped closer, the crowd seemed to come to life with hushed murmuring. "Wasn't she one of them Iron Hand grunts?" she heard one man say.

"Yeah, She's dangerous," she heard another man say.

The murmurs grew to shouting, the shouting to screaming, all of it at Tasaria.

"The Iron Hand Murdered my brother!"

"You're not welcome here, murderer!"

Tasaria pleaded with them. "Please! I'm not with them anymore! I swear!" Her pleas were futile, and only added more fuel to The fire.

"That's what they all say! That's what they always say!"

"How can we trust you after what you did!?"

"Prove it! Prove you're not with them!"

The screams of anger suddenly turned to terror. "It's her!" The mob ran from Tasaria, but it didn't look like they were afraid of her.

Tasaria looked behind her, only to see Maria. She got into a defensive stance as she glared at her, blades materializing from the shadows. "What are you doing here!?" she shouted, ready to defend herself.

Maria did not look at her, but instead at the mob. She ran after them, drawing her greatsword from her back as she charged towards them. Tasaria gasped as she ran faster than she ever did before, getting in between Maria and the mob, stabbing her in the chest. Maria's breathing turned to choked gasps as she looked to Tasaria with a sense of betrayal in her eyes. Tasaria's face instantly fell as Maria dropped her greatsword. Maria took a few staggering steps before collapsing to the ground, her eyes lifeless. Tasaria' s blades dematerialized as she looked at her blood stained hands. The murmurs arose again, but the tone of them was surprisingly different.

"She... She wasn't lying."

"She saved us."

"She... She did it."

The murmurs faded away, as did the vision of the courtyard, and there she stood, alone in a wood cabin. Or so she thought. "I see you passed this house's trials too." She turned towards the speaker to find that it was Gunari. She rushed into her arms, sobbing into her. "Hey kiddo... Hey... What's wrong?" She ran her fingers through her hair soothingly as Tasaria kept sobbing into her.


	5. Failure.

As Rachel entered the cabin, she found herself in a blood stained battlefield. Judging by the bodies, one side was clearly winning. She had so many questions. How did she get here? What the hell is this place? How did that small cabin hold this much space? She was brought out of her train of thought by a sharp cry for help. She turned to see Windsor, with a pair of civilians running from him, roughly 20 meters apart. She was deeply confused. Why did he have both arms? Didn't Tasaria slice off one of his hands?

There would be time to answer that later. Those people needed help. She rushed at Windsor, slashing at him. Windsor catches the blade with his axe, yanking the blade out of her hand. Windsor grabbed her wrist and threw her to the ground. He sent a windslash, wide enough to chop both of the civilians in half. There were screams, the sound of a blade slicing through flesh and bone, and then silence. Rachel closed her eyes, expecting the end... 

But it never came. She was standing upright again, finding herself in the same battlefield, only to hear the same cry of help. "What the hell?" she said to herself. This had to be some kind of trick. But... Who? She highly doubted it was the Gilded Cross. An illusion like this was far too elaborate to maintain for most people. It would take hundreds of them to make something this real, and it would be highly impractical. If it were an illusion by hundreds if them, why not settle for a lesser illusion to distract her briefly while amother group goes in for the kill. This had to be the work of some higher power. A lightbulb went off in her head. Rachel had heard tales of this place. Frightened whispers in taverns that spoke of a house of God. One that would offer respite for weary travelers, at a price. They had to partake in a trial that tested them in some way. If they passed, not only would they be able to rest, but they would also be granted some enchanted boon.

She figured that this trial was supposed to test her creative thinking. Saving two people from a force too powerful to defeat on her own and who were too far apart to save with her shield. She rushed between the civilians as the wind slash came. Her shield glowed with the same light Rachel had grown so used to seeing as it created a barrier of light large enough to shield all three of them. Rachel braced herself for the slash of wind and prayed the barrier held. She closed her eyes.

The first sign that something had gone wrong was the sound of breaking glass. She opened her eyes, and her face fell. "No..." The barrier had shattered. The light had been stretched too thin. Her own shield was the only thing that saved her from the wind slash. The people she was supposed to protect, however, were not so lucky. Their bodies were once again cleaved in two. Rachel swore as the illusion reset itself once again.

Rachel had a different idea this time. She ran closer to Windsor, creating a more intensified barrier directly in front of him. Unfortunately, Rachel being closer to Windsor also meant that Windsor could just dash around it quickly, which he did, knocking her to the ground again as the same slash still butchered them.

And so began a long cycle of failed attempts. Every solution she tried to think of was only met with the same result. It seemed impossible. After twenty or so attempts (she had lost count after a while), she was out of ideas. Nothing was working. Rachel collapsed, partly from exhaustion, partly from despair. Tears streamed down her face as she slammed her fist into the ground. "I can't do this! I can't save them!" Rachel's words were fraught with frustration. Frustration at her own failures. "I can't save them..." she repeated to herself, her own mantra of despair. She was stuck in this loop for what felt like ages.

When she finally calmed down, she tried to look at it with a clear mind. If saving them both wasn't working... Then what was she supposed to do? Avenge them? She doubted it, Windsor was still to strong for her. She bounced the idea around in her head until something clicked in her head. She couldn't save them both. She couldn't save everyone! That's what the trial was trying to tell her! She looked to the civilians once again. If she couldn't save them both, she might be able to save one of them. She bolted between Windsor and one of the civilians, raising her shield high as she braced herself for the blast.

The force was strong. Incredibly strong. It was difficult to stand her ground, but she remained standing nonetheless. She cringed at the sound of one of the civilians meeting a grisly end. Illusion it may be, it reminded her of the same ugly truth: she couldn't save everyone. The force eventually stopped. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself inside a log cabin. She saw Eden, looking worriedly at Tasaria, who was still sobbing into Gunari. She dropped her shield, fully aware of how exhausted she had become, as she hugged Tasaria softly in an attempt to comfort her.


	6. Discussions

Rachel dropped her shield. She hadn't quite noticed how heavy it felt in her tired arms until just now. She sat next to Eden. She looked over to Tasaria. Tasaria was starting to calm down, if her deep breathing was any indication. 

Everything was silent. It wasn't a calm, soothing silence. The one you could fall asleep in. This silence was suffocating. Tense. Uncomfortable. Like meeting your significant other's parents.

Thankfully, Eden was the first to speak. "what... What WAS that?"

Gunari sighs. "This cabin... Is special. It forces you to undergo a... Trial, of some sort. It's never the same for any one person, from what i know. It's like this cabin... Forces you to improve."

"But... The amount of magic required to make something like it is... immense! It would take... It would take a god to make something like this!"

"Maybe. Or... Maybe it was a sorcerer. There are ways of amassing so much power, morally questionable as they may be."

Rachel tilted her head. "How would someone amass that much power?"

"By stealing it, of course." the punctuality of her answer caught Rachel off guard.

"You say that as if it's easy." she said.

"Oh, it is. In fact, there's a spell to do it!" she seemed furious about that fact. "Some motherfuckers feel they're so much better than EVERYBODY else, that they should be the only ones who get to use magic. Either that, or they use it to rob the magic off of the people they killed."

"But... wouldn't that much raw magic coursing through their bodies kill them?"

"Oh, it would reduce them to ash! But somewhere along the line, someone realized "Oh hey, I can store this magic in runes!" And then they did. And they were unstoppable, until they got their arm chopped off. Turns out, storing all those runes in your arm isn't much help if the arms that rune attached to is out of reach."

"Now. You've all had a long day. I think it's time we got some shuteye." Gunari laid down her head.

"One more thing. Why didn't you go through a trial as well?"

"Because I already went through one. Turns out the trial is a literal once in a lifetime opportunity."

"Oh." Rachel, unsatisfied with that answer, laid down and drifted off to sleep.


	7. The Morning After

The next morning came much earlier than normal. Even Eden found herself unable to sleep. When Gunari woke up, she was surprised to find everyone awake, until the haze of sleep faded and she realized what had happened. "Couldn't sleep?"

They all shook their heads in unison. Gunari sighed as she stood up and dusted herself off. "Well, I suppose you guys werent gonna get much sleep after that. Let's pack up and get going. This is the home stretch."

Eden lifted up her mat and found a small crystal inside. It was a bright purple gemstone that seemed to radiate its own heat. Tasaria found a spyglass in her mat. It was a silver one, with a gold trim swirling around the length of the glass in two streams before meeting together at the lens. Rachel found a ring inside hers, inlaid with a pearl. It seemed to radiate life from it. "Where the hell did these come from?" Rachel said, holding up the ring.

Gunari shrugged. "Probably your reward for the trial. It's generally enchanted, too. Supposed to be useful in some way?"

"How!?"

"You'll have to find out for yourselves. Ready?"

Rachel groaned. "Yeah. We're ready."

"Good. Let's check on Vashti." Gunari stepped outside.

Rachel sighed. "Tasaria. Your mom is great, but holy shit she can be a real handful."

"Eh. I don't mind." Tasaria stepped outside. Rachel and Eden followed.

Outside, Vashti was already awake and ready to go. The gang climbed aboard, and he took to the skies above.


	8. Angel's Ridge

Rachel was really starting to hate Flying.

She hated how cramped it would get. She hated how she never really had time to herself. She hated how she always had to see Eden and Tasaria being sickeningly sweet to each other. Like, yeah sure, she was happy for them, but God damnit if they didn't just lather it on. It's not like she was jealous. No, she very much liked to be alone until she was sure she found that special someone.

But godamn if finding that special someone wasn't impossible.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Gunari saying that they had arrived.

Had time really passed that quickly? She had never even noticed that they were going down. She grabbed her things and hopped off of Vashti.

When she looked up at where she was, She was amazed.

Hidden in the sun-burnt soil of a deep gorge, there was an encampment-no... It was like a small city! It was bustling with people of all different origins, professions, and backgrounds. Alongside them were soldiers, bearing the insignia of a Blue Star. Peering from the center of the star was an eye, always watching over it's wearer.

"Welcome to Angel's Ridge." Gunari said, leading them in.

\--------  
Tasaria wasn't sure how to feel, to be honest.

Here she was, walking into another military encampment.

Sure, this was also a refugee camp of sorts, but it was still a military base.

It was another cause she'd have to fight for.

She never had a choice as to whether or not she'd be a soldier. As soon as she was old enough to hold a sword, that was what she was forced to do. Every day was another training exercise. Every meal was gruel and stale water. Every night was spent on a crude canvas in the shape of a bed.

She never had a choice in who she wanted to be.

And even now, in this place filled with people who would understand her more than the Gilded Cross ever did...

She still doesn't have a choice.

She doesn't know what else is left for her except for fighting and killing. She doesn't know what she likes to do, only what she knows how to do.

Tasaria paused, coming to a harsh realization.

She doesn't know who she is. Only what she is.

She didn't have time to think anymore on it, however, as a sharp punch to the jaw disrupted her thoughts. She stumbled, instinctually creating a pair of swords from the shadows. Tasaria looked at her assailant, and paused.

It was her big sister. Kiverin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kiverin is not her Biological sister. She is Maria's biological daughter. Just want to clear that up before we go into her next chapter.


End file.
